News And Views From The World Of F1

- After a disastrous Hungarian Grand Prix, Renault’s Nick Heidfeld believes is it essential that the team develop some serious hardware updates to the R31 for Spa, if they are to save their season. The teams latest embarrassment was at the Hungarian Grand Prix, when viewers witnessed a dramatic ending to Heidfeld’s race, with his sidepod exploding – damaging a marshal. The drama began shortly after the German left his pit box, with a volcanic-like ash bellowing out the rear of the car at the pit crew, and by the time the R31 had reached the end of the pit-lane, it was well alight with flames. Heidfeld was forced to pull over on the exit of the pit lane, and dive out the car, just shortly before it exploded as marshals were attending the scene.

- McLaren’s Jenson Button has the opinion that Red Bull have many reasons to be worried, as he thinks the McLaren MP4-26 is just as quick as the Red Bull RB7, if not quicker during both Qualifying, and the race. McLaren have won the last 3 out of 5 races, a fact which Button thinks is not luck, but sheer pace and developments. Furthermore, the 2009 World Champion sees no reason why the car cannot win many of the remaining races. For Spa, the first race after the break, he has ambitious expectations, telling one journalist: ”Spa is a very different race, and I am hoping that we will have a good package for it. I’m looking forward to running it, and hopefully we can fight for another victory. We should do well.”

-Keeping with the championship catchup battle, and Ferrari engineers are to work ‘flat out’ before the beginning of the big two week break starting at the weekend. Ferrari say that despite their weaknesses on Sunday, they are still in for the challenge of fighting Sebastian Vettel. Fernando Alonso remains relaxed, having returned to his home country of Spain to prepare for the two week break.

-A fake post written by hackers on Jenson Button’s Official Site has been removed today. The story, which was posted on Saturday night, claimed button was in a ‘Critical Condition’ after suffering from a serious car crash in Hungary. On the social networking site Twitter, Button said he was “completely fine”. A spokesman for McLaren said “The story is completely untrue and is a very distasteful hoax”.

-Meanwhile, a stressed Sebastian Vettel has called for a re-think after a disappointing Hungarian Grand Prix for Red Bull. In an interview, discussing it, he admitted “It’s fair to say that in the last couple of events Ferrari and McLaren on race pace have made a step forwards, We need to have a look why”. Red Bull Team Principal wants the team to work through the summer to gain back the advantage of performance they had at the beginning of the season, to ensure they remain in the title battle.

And that is the latest news! Don’t remember to check back on Wednesday for further developments in the news…